A Closer Look at Measure EE

The ordinance that protects us from eviction right now is Oakland’s Measure EE, a rent control ordinance passed a few years back to give Oakland’s majority population of renters protection from the effects of the Bay Area’s dot-com bubble.

If you don’t know Measure EE, Section 6 is the critical part as it governs “Just cause evictions,” or under which situations is eviction in a covered unit legal. Here’s my synopsis of that section.  Note: I highly recommend you find an attorney who can help you interpret Measure EE. But this is a start:

Section 6. Good Cause Required for Eviction. — Landlord can’t endeavor to recover possesåsion, issue a notice terminating tenancy, or recover possession of a rental unit in the City of Oakland unless the landlord is able to prove the existence of one of the following grounds:

• The tenant isn’t paying rent.
• The tenant  is violating the terms of the lease
• The lease has expired without an extension
• The tenant is willfully damaging the unit.
• The tenant is bothering other tenants at the property.
• The tenant has used the rental unit for an illegal purpose.
• The tenant is denying the landlord legal access.
• The owner wants to move in or wants their family to move in.
• The owner needs to do repairs that cannot be done with a tenant in the home (but the tenant can come back).’
• The owner wants to remove the property from the rental market.

There are lots of subrules too, mostly protecting tenants who are elderly or disabled, too. But these are the broad strokes.

Note that foreclosure is not listed as a just cause. But even if it were, would that cause really be “just”?

Ironically, foreclosure was hardly a blip on the radar when Measure EE was passed in 2002. But a few years later, the ordinance is a lifeline for thousands of us in Oakland.

If you’re being evicted from your REO tenancy, have you checked whether you might be protected under just cause?